Everton's current playing style

[Pabbers]

Just want to win some games.

I feel our squad is in-grained with failure and let down, too may are just not winners.

I like these players but some or all of them just typify Everton under Moyes and Everton for 10 - 15 years.
Jagielka, Coleman, Baines, McCarthy, Mirallas, Oviedo, Kone, Besic!!

We need some hungry winners, we need to spend big imo.

 

[Verbal Kint]

...just about sums up the football served up under Martinez....but at least there was excitement and good football along the way. Consistently so for the first half of his time here and even early last season up to Christmas the attacking intent was there. The football in both second halves of the last two seasons was very frustrating though. And the slide last season was alarming. Which is why he was sacked.

Koeman up to now though: dull as ditchwater. No spectacle, no entertainment value, no attempt to construct moves, not good enough from a stylistic point of view. That needs to change. The stuff I read from the Southampton forums though suggests it wont change that much.

All valid points, I was a big Martinez fan myself. Loved his philosophy, I keep going back to the Arsenal game at the Emirates when Deulofeu scored the late equaliser. I really felt we were on the gusp of something that day, unfortunately he couldn't adapt when teams realised how to play us. I'm hoping Koeman is looking at developed a backbone to the side and making us hard to play against before taking the next step.

 

[sharkey1001]

The summer transfer window failure is to blame

 

[Barnfred 55]

When was the last time a player came on as a sub and people thought "oh yes here we go!"
In a good way that is.....

Rooney

 

[Toffeelover]

Current playing style - sucks.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Agreed. It's not so much a style of play we have right now, but more of a "whatever works at the moment" band aid. Koeman's first task was to stop the bleeding - get that sorted and then focus on the cure. Hopefully, this is just a temporary state of affairs. A short lived, transitional stop gap. Rebuilds are always ugly and messy, but you do expect, at some point, to see progress. Meanwhile, beans on cheese on toast it is.

This. The leaky defence has been fixed (Burnley the exception). He needs time to find the right balance now and front players that suit the system he wants to play.

It doesn't help that many of our attacking players are not producing. I would say we have 5 good/very good forward players. In my view we need at least 7, one of which must be a playmaking midfielder. Of those 5 we have, one is doing what we would expect, one has been blowing hot and cold, and the rest are just not doing it.

I'm pretty confident Koeman will get it sorted eventually, especially once he brings new blood on board. In the meantime, it's important that we keep on picking up results/points in any way we can.

 

[BainesMakeHerDance]

Pragmatic

 

[Efcjake]

Ermmm do we even have a definitive playing style at the moment?

It's hard to say when we've not been winning games and the team shape has been changing whether Barkley is or isn't in the team.

 

[captainvindaloo]

I think we can all agree we are currently just treading water. I can't see us progressing until the side is woken up, shaken up and to a certain degree broken up.
We have a strange mix of good, bad and ugly in the first team. That is reflected in our good, bad, ugly playing "style".
You get the feeling Koeman doesn't know what to do with this lot. He looks very frustrated on the touchline.

 

[allezlesbleus]

I think we can all agree we are currently just treading water. I can't see us progressing until the side is woken up, shaken up and to a certain degree broken up.
We have a strange mix of good, bad and ugly in the first team. That is reflected in our good, bad, ugly playing "style".
You get the feeling Koeman doesn't know what to do with this lot. He looks very frustrated on the touchline.

He looks like a guy who thought he would have far more of his own choice of players in the team than he actually has at this point. Does not really believe in most of the guys he is picking and will have to do good business in the notoriously tricky January window for things to be much different in the second half of the season. Lots of good players there imo but they certainly are inconsistent and therefore frustrating for manager and fans alike!!!

 

[captainvindaloo]

He looks like a guy who thought he would have far more of his own choice of players in the team than he actually has at this point. Does not really believe in most of the guys he is picking and will have to do good business in the notoriously tricky January window for things to be much different in the second half of the season. Lots of good players there imo but they certainly are inconsistent and therefore frustrating for manager and fans alike!!!

He likes to use a dof, so all he can do is express his needs.
In otherwords, he does not like shopping, and come January/Summer windows, will just have to see what goodies Walsh brings home. He obviously has a plan and style of play in mind, but that is all dependant upon him getting his shopping list fulfilled.
In the meantime, he needs to get this lot into some kind of cohesive shape, and that struggle is the uglyness we are currently witnessing.

 

[jaycee]

Ponderous

 

[willo30]

At least the opposition can't work us out if we can't even work it out.

 

[Nealroy]

All valid points, I was a big Martinez fan myself. Loved his philosophy, I keep going back to the Arsenal game at the Emirates when Deulofeu scored the late equaliser. I really felt we were on the gusp of something that day, unfortunately he couldn't adapt when teams realised how to play us. I'm hoping Koeman is looking at developed a backbone to the side and making us hard to play against before taking the next step.

Loved us that day. I think you've summed up my feelings - there was a point where we had Barkley, Del, Stones and Rom all in the team and playing well and it felt like we were close to doing something. Now one of those has gone and two look touch and go to fulfil their potential. I'd say it's more about players than the manager for me but that optimism has certainly wained.

 

[the_tourist]

At least the opposition can't work us out if we can't even work it out.

something like these:

vs bourmouth

versus city cleverly replaced barkley(more discpline?!) and the two wingers played much wider looking for the counter and it worked to a point. Geri was unlucky vs city.

personally and i cant knock the guy at all, id like to see rom make more runs off the ball. Pelle at southampton did play in a similar way (to rom now occuping the central defenders) but rom has more to him, i think. Geri, bolasie and kev are all capable of driving at defenses how ever without bainesy we sometimes lack a decent crosser of the ball which is crucial when focusing on central play. Coleman and bolasie are hit and miss? and barkley and kev would rather shoot, gerry likes to cross early which rarely suits.

the above points out how much our wingers love to cut in. Gerry has tried to play wide in the past but is far more effictive cutting in and i get the sense that bolasie is similar both can whip a good ball in but do they want to, its not the first thing on their mind, the same goes for ross to a point. (in the game vs boro, were ross was obviously told to hold a bit more he had a whopping 91% pass completion, vs stoke he had 4 shots on target and two key passes)

you can see similar patterns in a previous southampton side

mccarthy when fit is a great player, i cant knock either barry or gueye who for me have been our two best players this season, i also wont knock ross who i love (no homo). I can see mccarthy forming a solid base with the other two, the pressure is then on the wingers to work effectively..